The winners of the 2007-2008 Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland aren't announced until mid June but today sees the release of the shortlists for each of the ten awards. Despite our invite to the discussions obviously being lost in the post, we're pleased to see recognition for many of the shows we've enjoyed in the last year... but we still don't understand the fuss about "Peer Gynt".
We managed to see three of the four nominations for Best Male Performance - Tam Dean Burn (for "Venus as a Boy"), Michael Glenn Murphy (for "Shining City") and a shared nomination for Keith Fleming and Gerry Mulgrew (as the younger and older versions of "Peer Gynt"). Murphy's inclusion here is the second year running Rapture Theatre Co have had one of their lead actors receive a nomination, so well done to all there as they have been one of our favourite companies over the last few years. The big surprise here for me is the omission of Alan Cumming (for "The Bacchae").
In the Best Female Performance category I enjoyed seeing Amy Manson (in "Six Characters in Search of an Author") and Sally Reid (in "The Wall"). I'm also delighted to see "The Wall" receive two other nominations for Best New Play and Best Ensemble. For Best New Play it's competitors include "Educating Agnes" which we also really enjoyed and for Best Ensemble they include "Peer Gynt" (which gathered 6 nominations altogether).
The Lyceum's "Wizard of Oz" rightly received a nomination for Best Production for Children and Young People, although given the reception it got at the time I'm surprised it didn't feature in more categories.
The awards are presented at a ceremony at Glasgow's Oran Mor on June 15th and tickets are available for £15.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Scottish Theatre Awards shortlists
2 Heckles
Well, I thought it was a rather thin year compared to other years, and did not get to see as many of these as I would have liked.
Good to see Dundee Rep up for several awards. Peer Gynt was bold and imaginative, although bits did not work so well.
I don't fully understand why Educating Agnes is described as a new play, and think that David Greig's Damascus and Byrne's Nova Scotia should at least be on the short-list.
Disappointed not to see Perth Theatre's production of "Of Mice and Men" not there somewhere, and also "Drawer Boy" seen recently at the Tron.
Agree about The Bacchae - farming and the Edinburgh Festival go very badly together, so we are off to Aberdeen to see this.
Bloggers' Award for next year perhaps?
That's a fair shout for "Damascus" which I think people treated unfairly at the time for not being the huge political play they expected. And yes, Dundee Rep can certainly be pleased with their haul of nominations.
"The Bacchae" is really quite flawed as a production but I'd have had Alan Cumming as favourite to *win* the award and I'm genuinely shocked he didn't rate a nomination.
"The Drawer Boy" missed the date for consideration but I'd hope to see it mentioned next year - is a cast of three sufficient to count as an Ensemble?
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